hich are forged by Hymen and wreathed with roses;
and the lady applied to his old promissory notes the torch of love,
which in a moment reduced them to ashes. And here, at the hermitage of
our jolly Chapelizod priest--for bride and bridegroom were alike of the
'ancient faith'--the treaty was ratified, and the bagpipe and the
bridegroom, in tremendous unison, splitting the rafters with 'Hymen,
Hymen, O Hymenoee!'

In the midst of this festive celebration, his reverence was summoned to
the hall, already perfumed with the incense of the geese, the onions,
the bacon browned at the kitchen-fire, and various other delicacies,
toned and enriched by the vapours that exhaled from the little bottle of
punch which, in consideration of his fatigues, stood by the elbow of the
piper.

When the holy man had heard Moggy's tale, he scratched his tonsure and
looked, I must say, confoundedly bored.

'Now, Moggy, my child, don't you see, acushla, 'tisn't to me you should
ha' come; I'm here, my dear, engaged,' and he dried his moist and
rubicund countenance, 'in one of the sacred offices iv the Church, the
sacrament, my dear, iv'--here Mahony and the piper struck up again in so
loud a key in the parlour, that as Moggy afterwards observed, 'they
could not hear their own ears,' and the conclusion of the sentence was
overwhelmed in, 'Many's the bottle I cracked in my time.' So his
reverence impatiently beckoned to the hall-door, which he opened, and on
the steps, where he was able to make himself audible, he explained the
nature of his present engagement, and referred her to Doctor Toole.
Assured, however, that he was in Dublin, he scratched his tonsure once
more.

'The divil burn the lot o' them, my dear, an' purty evenin' they chose
for their vagaries--an' law papers too, you say, an' an attorney into
the bargain--there's no influence you can bring to bear on them
fellows. If 'twas another man, an' a couple more at his back, myself an'
Pat Moran 'id wallop them out of the house, an' into the river, be
gannies; as aisy as say an _ave_.'

The illustration, it occurred to him, might possibly strike Moggy as
irreverent, and the worthy father paused, and, with upturned eyes,
murmured a Latin ejaculation, crossing himself; and having thus
reasserted his clerical character, he proceeded to demonstrate the
uselessness of his going.

But Father Roach, though sometimes a little bit testy, and, on the
whole, not without faults, was as good-natu